Jamie Thomas, 25 May '13

How loud is your opinion if you type it? Can you hashtag your darkest secrets, or email your passionate urges? Is a tweet nothing more than just another onomatopoeia?

Oink. Hiss. Cluck. Woof. Tweet.

Have we entered a new revolutionary age, or are we just speaking in tired sound bytes?

We devote our lives to tiny flashing screens, suddenly immersed in more of our world than any generation before us. We take pride in this. We take pride in having a wealth of the world's knowledge at our fingertips, yet we are still less aware than we have ever been. As a human race, we are tearing ourselves apart while we collectively switch between reading incoherent timelines and sharing viral videos and reading about the latest terrorist attack and watching porn and searching and posting and downloading and uploading and screaming inside our heads because we can't bear to be without what is slowly becoming the lifeblood of the world.

Social relationships are breaking down, and we are becoming desensitised. The Internet allows us to see the horrors of the world, behind thick glass and miles and miles, and we feel safe and protected. One day, the world will show us that we are not safe.

The Internet is a cancer that we have welcomed with open arms.